PUMPKIN PANIC: Nightmare Mode

Pumpkin Head’s worst nightmare – someone else with a cooler Pumpkin head is on your farm stealing your mojo!

Nightmare differences:

• Cannibal – No Warnings!
• Slappy Tentacles
• TWO DEER!?
• Quests that must be completed
• G g g g ghosts!?
• New Unique Pumpkin Pets

There are always 4 quests to complete in Nightmare Mode before you can escape. You need to unlock your quests by paying the Scarecrow 4 pink tokens. Can’t make progress towards completing these quests until they’ve been unlocked.

The 4 quests are always:

#1 – Catch 5 ghosts
#2 – Catch 4 of a specific fish
#3 – Pickup either 16 sticks or 16 grass
#4 – Harvest 50 of a specific crop

• Ghosts – get spooked if they see you getting close. Try to catch them from behind.

Crops:

• Center – Wobble Berries
• Top Left – Sweet Cabbage
• Top Right – Melancholic Sunflower
• Bottom Left – Crispy? Pineapple
• Bottom Right – Juicy Cucumber

This guy is what makes nightmare mode a nightmare. No warnings on Nightmare Mode! (unless they’ve updated the game). Honestly, just get your cellphone and set a timer. Seriously. I set a 2:05 timer and reset it whenever I went in the cabin with the violins playing. If you are just hanging out by the house whenever your timer goes off, you will be good. EXCEPT.. for some reason, it seemed like ol’ a$$ eater came crazy early 1 time on day 2 pretty much every time. So, watch your pumpkin a$$ because he might come after just 1:45 randomly at some point. Also, if you are hanging out by the house expecting the cannibal to spawn, but then you hear the clown instead – don’t just keep waiting for the cannibal because the clown will kill you. If the clown spawns when you are expecting the cannibal, the game gives you like another 20 seconds to go deal with the clown.

The tentacles will probably slap you in your pumpkin dome once or twice, but they are honestly very easy to deal with once you’re aware of them. There are 3 places where tentacles can slap, right when you go on the dock, right where you fish, and on the bottom of the dock. If you see and hear the water bubbling, just barely move into the slap range to trigger it and quickly move back out. Like the note on your wall says – very easy to dodge.

I choose you Possumchu!
You want the possum. Period.

• Bird (obtainable in Normal Mode) – Gives you a penny every 10 seconds
• Frog (obtainable in Normal Mode) – Counts as a bucket upgrade when equipped
• Bat (obtainable in Nightmare Mode) – Periodically highlights the deer on a long cooldown
• Possum (obtainable in Nightmare Mode) – Makes energy recharge faster

To obtain:
Bat – Bat spawns randomly at night in nightmare mode. You will see/hear it. Need to show the bat love multiple times in one game to unlock.

Possum – Possum will randomly sprint across the farm sometimes on nightmare. Gotta catch that slippery guy once to unlock.

• The 2nd deer spawns after the 2nd cannibal. At that point, the game is at maximum difficulty. In other words, it does not get any harder. So, just take your time and play super safe (unless you are trying to get the achievement). There’s no penalty for just taking it very slow and safe if you just want a nightmare dub.
• Light upgrades do not just add stationary lights. They also slightly expand your character’s light range. Very important if you don’t want to bump into strangers in the night.
• Be very careful about dashing around in the dark if you don’t know where the deer are!
• The fishing quest can easily take the longest if you don’t prioritize it since it’s totally rng. If you are going for speed, fish early and often.
• When it comes to the cannibal, better safe than sorry! Even if you are just waiting around by the house quite a bit each cycle, you can still easily beat Nightmare Mode and get the achievement if you are efficient the rest of the time.

So now you know everything; get out there and Pumpkin Prevail!